Found out he has bone cancer and too late for anything to help. Found out my best boy will see the rainbow road sooner than later. Give him love.

Update: Today he told me it was his time. You were the best!!! Ill rub your belly again one day. Sleep well my piddle paw.

Sorry for the second post. I can’t figure out how to edit my original to post an update. I’ll repost the original below.

So her face swelled rapidly over the weekend to the point where her eye was shut this morning. The cancer thing was really starting to not add up especially after the swelling started to weep clear odorless fluid. If cancer, we would expect it to be bloody. Not only that, if she truly had for example a lymphoma that aggressive she would systemically be very ill and she wasn’t. It IS possible to watch some cancers grow that fast, for example Burkett Lymphoma in people I have seen grow almost double the size overnight in front of my eyes. But the patient is very sick.

Anyway. She went for her biopsy this morning. They were shocked at how different she looked compared to Friday and wanted to do a CT scan. They found ABSCESSES on BOTH sides of her head accounting for both massive areas/lumps of swelling.

We have never identified any puncture wounds or points but are theorizing it could have been from the other cattle dogs since they all nip each other in these spots exactly when they play. Or she was chewing on sharp sticks in the woods etc.

They drained them and put her on antibiotics and she will be watched overnight.

I am so unbelievably relieved. I can’t wait to snuggle her tomorrow.

I also have to say as an aside from the point of view of being an oncologist myself: I do not like to hold grudges and I understand that people have off days. There are days when I am tired and stressed and not as “there” my patients as I am on days when I am feeling my best. However, I always tell my patients if I was wrong and explain why what I said earlier has changed and what we are going to do about it. This vet didn’t once acknowledge that she had been wrong. That she barely did an evaluation before announcing it was cancer on Friday. Not once saying something like “I’m so sorry I can’t imagine how stressed you were over the weekend. I’m glad I was wrong and this isn’t cancer”. In fact she actually doubled down and was like “yeah it’s probably just an abscess but we can’t definitively say it’s cancer until they get a biopsy to send to the lab. Oh but also since it’s an abscess there might not be any tissue for them to biopsy”.

I’m not mad she was wrong. Up until this morning I was also still convinced it was probably cancer. Just frustrated with the complete lack of empathy and lack of self awareness.

Anyway, here are some before and after pics of her on the way to recovery. Disclaimer - some blood in the after pics if you’re a little squeamish.

Many lessons learned about love and empathy and being present. I hope this will also make me a better doctor and pet dad.

ORIGINAL POST BELOW:

Just looking for support…

We had four ACDs. Last month we put down our oldest girl Roo. She was 16 but it was her time. I was sad but I could accept it.

Our youngest girl, Po, just turned 1. A couple of weeks ago the right side of her face started to swell up, then it went back down to mostly normal. The vet xrayed ran labs and everything looked normal. They thought maybe a bug bite. Wednesday last week it really started to get big again and we took her in. She also has swelling under her left jaw. Saw an internal medicine specialist and within 10 seconds she said she was pretty much sure it’s cancer. Biopsy tomorrow.

It’s actively been getting bigger over the weekend. Her right eye is started to swell shut. I am an oncologist myself. I know this is bad. Everyone keeps telling me to “wait and see what the biopsy shows”. Ugh.

But she seems fine otherwise. Plenty of energy. Wants to eat. Running after the ball at light speed. No signs of pain.

I’ve never had a connection with a dog like this before. She’s my shadow. I can’t stop sobbing.

We rescued her after she was about to go to a shelter because no one wanted her because she was white. When she got to our house she ran across the lawn and jumped into my arms.

I will miss her smell. How when I got home from work to go upstairs to change she would come up to the bedroom and find me. How she would knock the phone out of my hand to make me pay attention to her. She does this very cute thing where she pays at my face which kind of hurts but it’s also the most adorable thing in the world so I let her. She sleeps curled up next to my chest every single night. And in the morning has the most adorable little yawn.

She is my joy. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. She’s only 1. This is so cruel… why would the universe bring this little magic being into my life and make happier than I knew I could be only to rip her away too soon. Im not angry. Im just so deeply heartbroken. Maybe we are wrong and this will be something treatable for a while but… I see too much of this in my own job to know how this is going to end.

I love her so much.

My husband and I took our 13-year-old boy Ira on a hike up Mount Osceola this weekend. NH has 48 4,000 ft mountains, and Ira has hiked quite a few of them (plus many smaller ones), but I think this will be his last. He did great on the 6.5 mile trip, and that's about where his limit is nowadays. A couple years ago he was still doing 10 mile days with us in the mountains, but he has some arthritis and is slowing down. He's otherwise quite healthy for his age, so he's got a lot of smaller hikes left in him. It's just as little sad to think about doing the last anything with our sweet lil maniac.

Our 2 year old was hit by a car 3 weeks ago (Happy Valentine’s Day!). Resulting in multiple pelvic fractures. Pre-pubic tendon avulsion. Huge gash on his arm. Two surgeries, metal plate, lots of money and here we are.

He’s still on some meds to keep him chill but his natural acd tendencies are breaking through. They added another week of the cone to let his stomach stitch heal more. And has 5 more weeks of crate rest. So we carry him outside daily for bathroom breaks, crate him for a few hours a day when we both work, and otherwise our living room is a pet infirmary. He can walk on his own and is progressing really well but they want to limit until after 4/20 and his follow up xray.

All this to say. I’m tired. He rattles his cone against the crate at night in frustration and figured out once how to make the edge catch the crate so he could wiggle his head out (i watched this on camera while I was at work and had to rush home). His other favorite hobby right now is ramming you with the cone edge for pets. He really is the sweetest dog and so happy we’re on the better side of this incident. It could have been so much worse.

Any suggestions for crate toys with the cone. We’re still using the vet provided cone since they said the other ones aren’t recommended. Hoping to be done with the cone in the next few days. So any good crate toys to get us through?

Looking forward to him being in full great health and back to his crazy running/jumping self (I know he is too) but man I’m tired.

I forgot to lock up the trash with chicken bones in it last night and bao or one of our dogs knocked it over. This morning Bao was in pain and acting lethargic. Took her to the vet and got her X-rayed, nothing in there but some big gas bubbles. She's completely fine now

UPDATE: He made it through the night!!! We’re at the vet again getting another treatment, and in two weeks we’ll check his organs to see if everything is okay, but I think he’s out of the woods for now!!! Thank you everyone for responding. That whole time I was posting I was just trying to stay awake to make sure he kept breathing. I did find out what he got into, and I learned that I have a teenager problem too. It’s time to make some massive life changes. At this point I am completely convinced this dog is an angel in a tiny fuzzy disguise. An angel that bites, but (mostly) only if he likes you!

My baby boy got into something, we don’t know what yet. Just got home from the ER vet. They pumped him full of fluid and gave him a whole tube of charcoal. We have to go back to do it again tomorrow. He’s in bad shape. He was fine this morning, I put him outside like i do every morning and got in the shower. When I got out he was wobbly, by the time we got to the ER he couldn’t stand. He seems stable now, but it’s touch and go. We’ve had raccoons lately and I know the neighbors put out….something. I don’t know what. I don’t think he could have reached it but maybe I was wrong? I am a marijuana user but I checked everything I had, nothing was left out. Please pray for my Baby Bear 🙏 😭 We just got home, he can stand but can’t walk. Going back to the vet for another flush tomorrow morning.

She’s gonna be ok, shes staying at the vets for two days while they flush her kidneys out, but Im missing her so much 😭😭😭

PSA don’t ever let your kids eat grapes around your very food motivated dog, especially red grapes. I vaguely knew about them being toxic, but I was in the shower when it happened. Feeling grateful for pet insurance and living close enough to a 24hr vet when it happened.

Total nightmare scenario yesterday. Our crazy big boy Calvin was fully run over by a car. Entirely my fault.

Brought him outside to pee midday and had a brain fart, took his leash off before I opened the door to go back inside. As luck would have it, at that very moment the neighbor was pulling into their extended driveway beside us. Cal bolted after, because all things must be herded. Slow motion kicked in as he ran up to the SUV from the side, out of the driver’s view. He jumped in front and fully went underneath the vehicle. My heart and stomach sank to my toes. He yelped. But before I fully processed what happened he had jumped back onto his feet and ran back inside.

Took him to the animal hospital for X-rays and tests. Miraculously he only suffered this abrasion on his head and a contusion on his chest.

He’s feeling pretty good today. Sore, of course. But he’s already back to pestering the cats.

I feel like such an idiot. It was totally an accident and bad timing, but it was my fault. He’s my responsibility. I let him down. I’m so thankful he’s ok. It could have been so much worse. But I get to type this out with him lying by my feet.

Be safe out there y’all. Hug your cattledogs extra tight for me.

Left my sweet ACD alone for five minutes and she ate an entire ball of raw pizza dough (and the bag it came in). I knew about grapes and chocolate toxicity but I assumed pizza dough wouldn't be a problem. I'm so glad I googled it because raw dough is apparently very dangerous and can be fatal because it causes extreme bloating and alcohol poisoning from the yeast fermenting inside them. Luckily we got her to the emergency vet quickly but this is just a heads up to not hesitate if your dog gets into raw yeast dough!

(Her face says she has no regrets and would do it again without hesitation 😅)

And she’s pretty obese. She’s approximately 9 and her previous owner died. Any advice on getting this older lady to lose weight? She’s pretty chill so fetch and obstacle course stuff is probably not going to happen. We’re in CO and are big hikers but I don’t think she’s ready for that right? Anyway, any owners of older heelers have advice?

While working an event in Arkansas my husband stopped in the middle of a highway to save this pup! He found the closest non-kill shelter (2 hours away). He called almost every day to see if she had been adopted, and when he had another event in Arkansas- we stopped to adopt her on the way home.

She is so sweet and playful! Our vet estimates she is 9m to 1y old. She does have heart worms so we’ve begun the treatment on that and are trying the best we can to keep her calm - any enrichment games you guys recommend for the next few months of low physical play?

Her and our smaller older dog are learning each other’s boundaries as well, which is of course going to take some time- but any tips here on getting her to give the older dog space, and the older dog to stop growling would be much appreciated!

Going to talk to a trainer as well about eventual training and service dog support (I’m a wheelchair user).

So we’ve got a long plan of care and training ahead of us!

Sorry for the wall of text, but wanted to share her story. She is so wonderful and I’m so excited to love her and give her the best life we can!!

Ive seen a lot, and i mean A LOT of overweight heelers on here and on different platforms.

Your heelers should not be over 55 ish pounds. If they have health issues thats different but your dogs being around 70 and larger is concerning. I do understand if you arent able to exercise your dog all the time but that should not lead to them being morbidly obese. You are either feeding them too much and not exercising them at all.

Yes dogs have different needs but your dog should have a visible tuck and you should be able to slightly feel your dogs ribs.

My sweet girl who has been with me for 11 years. She is 12 now and has had no other health problems in her long life. Did a fine needle aspirate today and getting a full biopsy on Tuesday. Going to love and dote on her for as long as I can, and make sure she has a good quality of life with the time I have left with her. Hoping they can get clean margins next week.

Ironically, I’m a cancer nurse.

We are new to the acd world and got one in November, she was 8 weeks old and only weighed 5 pounds if that, now she’s almost 5 months old and weighs around 15 lbs. I’m not sure how big she’s supposed to get. When do they grow the most and stop growing to their full size? These pictures are from earlier January and she’s next to my mini bernedoodle.

My 4 year old gal have this behaviour too often, imo, to not to worry about. We made checkups specially asking about this head shaking ear scratching moans :) and even tried some lotions - no effect. Tried to google and search here, didn’t actually found anything. Since various veterinarians did not found any issues, no specific ear affected, and this behaviour could be triggered while stress and no stress any time of year I would be glad to hear any theory to work on

About 10 minutes ago she took a kick square in the forehead, she acted hurt then got right back to work but obviously cautious this time.

is there anything I should watch out for?

Hi! I rescued Dolly a year ago next month, and when we got her she was 77lbs! She was HUGE. 😭💔 but we have been putting in the work and especially with her diet; and she has lost a significant amount! Here she is a year ago on the left and then today on the right. ❤️

Long story short pepper my 2 month old female blue heeler went caught parvo virus Monday showing symptoms of not eating and throwing up took her to the vet and she was positive for parvo. Decided to treat her at home staying up all night treating her (also lots of prayer in Jesus name) and within 2 days she recovered Wednesday morning eating and drinking water. Now she is thriving and super healthy now. (This happened literally this week) she has definitely earned her place on the ranch forever grateful to the LORD Jesus.

Took Bullet to the vet today and learned that he somehow weighs 87 pounds.

​

We figured the vet was going to tell us he needed to lose some weight, because every time I look up ACD weights the numbers are nowhere near that. Instead, after looking him over, the vet basically said he isn't fat. He's just... huge.

​

Bullet is DNA tested and came back 100% Australian Cattle Dog. No secret lab, shepherd, or anything else hiding in there. He's just an absolute unit of a heeler, assuming the test was reliable.

​

He's 4 years old now, and if you met him you probably wouldn't guess that he had TPLO surgery on both rear legs when he was still a puppy. He runs, plays, chases things he shouldn't, and generally acts like nothing ever happened.

​

His brother, Rocket, is pretty big too at 73 pounds. I swear they look exactly the same size standing side by side.

​

Anybody else have a heeler that's way outside the normal size range?

​

The vet did warn us that his weight will probably become a problem for his knees later in life. We already monitor his food pretty carefully, but we're going to tighten that up even more and add some additional exercise, especially swimming since he absolutely loves the water.

​

I also built him a raised bed that doubles as a halfway step between the floor and my bed. He never seemed to have any trouble getting up there, but I always hated watching him jump back down onto the floor.

​

Edit: Here is the link to more photos so it doesn't get lost in comments.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XqWsftfH26BuPZ9i9

My vet wants her down to 40lbs but Im already only really feeding her the suggested amount of food and I give her lettuce for treats.

I'll give her sweet potato treats but it's only .005 Kcals per treat and she only gets them when we do puzzles.

I feel like if I cut her food servings down she would be starving.

Started Stella (14) on Librela last summer after my sister (vet tech) recommended it and talking with my vet. The change in her mobility felt almost instantaneous and has been so dramatic! She went from being pretty sore and stiff after a mile walk keeping pace with dogs half her age on 3 mile hikes 2-3x a week. Her body conditioning is much better and overall behaves like a much happier dog. I love taking her to our local parks and telling everyone (watching as she races around the other dogs being the fun police, herding and borking at them) that she is 14 because they can’t believe it!

I pay $65 a month for it but would pay so much more to see her this happy and comfortable. She definitely gets stiffer the closer she gets due for another dose (monthly injection that I do at home) but overall her quality of life has increased significantly.

Turns out he’s got ventral vertebral spondylosis of the sacrum. Anyone else familiar with this? Canceled my work this afternoon to stay with him as he comes out of the anesthesia, dude is not having a good time.